Behaviour of Human Femur Bone Under Bending and Impact Loads

Abstract

Femoral fractures are among the most common major injuries that an orthopedic surgeon will be required to treat. During fracture treatment of femur bone the biomaterials are used for fracture healing. Evaluation of femur fractures using clinical data is confounded by multiple patient and fracture specific factors making it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions, despite the inclusion of large number of patient data. Therefore the biomechanical testing of the femur bone plays a vital role in the evaluation the femoral fractures. The main mechanical characteristics which will influence on the fracture damage of the femur are impact resistance, fracture toughness and bending strength. The experimental investigation is carried out to evaluate these damage characterizing parameters in femur. In order to evaluate the influence of the loading type on the pre cracked femur, the notched femur bone has been tested under impact and bending loads. Also the effect of these loads on the femur with implant has been determined. The results have shown the femur strength is extremely variable with respect to the different regions. Each damage characterizing parameter has shown maximum dependency on the matrix of the femur and its hardness. The macroscopic observations of the fractured specimens have shown that, the chipping of the bone, longitudinal cracks and the multiple cracks in femur are most dangerous.